![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riverviewmod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
riverviewooc2017-05-19 11:04 pm
riverview: may test drive meme
riverview test drive memeWelcome to Riverview's test drive meme! Feel free to dip your toes in on the test drive meme to try out your character in the setting, play out a mission, and get samples for your application at the same time!
● Reserves are currently OPEN.
● Applications open on June 1st.
● Providing all parties are amenable, threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon, as the plot in the prompts presented is game canon.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points, so long as all characters involved are accepted into the game.
● Threading on the TDM is intended for prospective new characters, so top-levels should only be posted by players of these characters. Since the events in the TDM are considered game canon, characters currently in the game are free to use the TDM prompts for logs and posts on the regular communities.
Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own scenario. The setting is built to be flexible, so feel free to make things up as you go.
information resources
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation
Following rumors about a magical healing spring deep in the jungle, a group of intrepid explorers ventured out to verify whether it existed or not. After finding the spring inside an ancient temple overrun with tree roots and flora, they brought samples back and discovered that the spring did, in fact, have healing properties. Just like the rumors said.
Until the authorities decided what to do with this information, no actions were to be taken, nor information revealed to the public at large. Unfortunately, the news leaked and spread to the alternative science communities as well as the top minds at Gramarye Magic Research. With interest piqued, several more unauthorized expeditions set out beyond the fence in search of the spring. And once the information leaked beyond these scientists and scholars? Everyday citizens also launched their own excursions into the jungle, many bringing ailing family members or friends along for the ride.
This month the mission is to deploy teams of skilled citizens into the jungle to rescue some of the less fortunate, unsuccessful parties. Some of these people will be trapped or set upon by monsters, unable to move forward to the spring or back to the safety of the city. Others have simply run out of supplies and need the teams to restock them so they can continue their trek. And some groups have managed to reach the spring and collect their own samples of the spring water, only to find themselves struggling to return to the city before the samples lose efficacy. Feel free to create your own party to rescue, and get a team together to do so!
Normally, living inside the Inhabited City is a pretty safe bet. You can go day to day without running into a monster or risking any kind of danger requiring a fight. Generally, the tall, laser-fenced walls keep out anything particularly dangerous.
The problem with walls? They only go so high.
While usually assault from airborne monsters isn't a problem that's on the map, there's a few weeks during late spring where a swarm of flying monsters not unlike feathery pterodactyls are migrating back to another part of the moon. They're only in the area for a couple of weeks, but during that time, residents can expect occasional attacks by swooping monsters if they should see easy prey. Usually, a good sturdy dark-colored umbrella is enough to keep them from seeing a potential victim or meal, but sometimes the attacks still happen. So the Perimeter Guard sends extra details, calling in all the reserves, to patrol the city and keep an eye out for citizens in distress. There's also a general call for anyone who's experienced at fighting to help protect their fellow citizens. Whether your character is being attacked or protecting someone else, be prepared - these monsters are quick and have very sharp teeth.
Over the past couple of weeks, the portal has seemed really fixated on food. Almost every time the portal changes location, new bundles of food are near the entrance, ripe for the Perimeter Guard Orientation Team to pick up and drag through. As a result, the Orientation Team has set up a free bazaar outside City Hall. The Bazaar lasts from the 20th until the 31st of May, and is completely free, featuring tables and booths laden with food taken from the other side of the portal. Many of these foods will be familiar to characters in the City, whether it's that special brand they're totally addicted to or a plate of grandma's family recipe.
Everything at the Bazaar is totally free, and anyone joining in on the feast is encouraged to share (read: gently not allowed to leave until they do) and to tell stories about the origin of the foods from their own home. It's a multidimensional foodie's paradise!
Prijata is a holiday in Riverview celebrating platonic love - essentially, it's a celebration of friendship, geared at showing appreciation for existing friends and finding new ones. While I won't spoil the rest of the prompts for the introductory mingle, one of the main staples of Prijata is gift giving, and the Government of Riverview gets into the spirit of it by giving small gifts to everyone who's arrived since the last Prijata.
This prompt can be used to give a quick idea of what your character is into so other characters or players can suggest gifts to be given them (or to give them) if they are accepted! More information can be found in the Prijata Pregaming modpost.
Whether your character is posting up a silly word game to distract people from the dangerous mission going on, trying to get hold of a friend, or putting out feelers for people to go out into the fray with, the network is going strong.
Alternately, an offer for a free app is popping up on new arrivals' devices - Friendr is a friend-finder and/or dating app. If characters choose to install it, they will fill out a short bio and parameters for what they're looking for, upload a snap of themselves, and then proceed to browse for matches. This is a typical swipe-left-or-right type app.
Many thanks to
mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
no subject
Positive thoughts. ]
That's... wow. I know "incredible" falls a little short, but this is- [ They're nearing the place, which is in an abandoned collection of basements buried near the edge of town. The entrance is hidden in low lying trees and a cleverly arranged pile of crumbling architecture. You wouldn't have thought from looking at it that a bike could slide so neatly in between. ]
And you're taking them up on the offer, right?
[ The place itself is is furnished fairly warmly, if sparsely. It's lived in, in pretty direct opposition to his depressingly empty apartment in housing, where he mostly just pretends to sleep to have an official address on record. And be found easily by friends. It's a little untidy, as all of Dick's spaces tend to be, but not atrociously so. ]
no subject
I--yeah, I think I was going to. I hadn't told him yet, about any of it. We were starting a new team, training and....there was an attack.
{He motions a hand down his body at the injuries skipping right over his suicidal intervention with the drone programming and his who knows how long imprisonment in between space and time. Instead, he moves slowly around the space, taking in Dick's usual mess, and how blessedly not communal the place was.
He could already see the place he would start adding more security when he was able to find or purchase the materials.}
no subject
Attacks. Training. Teams. All avenues he needs to chase down. Right now though, Tim's here and he's safe and they're out of the way of prying eyes. Dick closes the distance at last and pulls him in for that hug, without preamble. And he'll just. Hold onto him for a moment, if Tim lets him. He gets a few seconds to hid his face too, to pull himself back together, which is embarrassingly kind of necessary, suddenly. ]
...Hey, Twerp.
no subject
He has to take a deep shuddering breath. The hospital was kinder than he had expected but before then it had been weeks since Tim experienced friendly contact, and Dick's hugs were overwhelming even on good days sometimes.}
Hello, Big Bird.
{He huffs just a little, not a complaint, but an acknowledgement they're probably both stalling and trying to get themselves together. The whole situation was....rough. Not the worst they'd been in by far, but definitely something they'd need to work together to get around. He gives Dick one last small squeeze despite his protesting muscles and then pulls back.}
no subject
But the lair is an easier focal point, and he really does want Tim's honest opinion on what he's done here so far. He gestures towards the fairly spartan but decently tricked out computer station, Vanna White style. ]
Not a lot of ambiance, but we've got room to expand. Though I guess everything kind of depends on timeframe.
[ He hasn't made much progress on a realistic escape plan, and only now is some part of him beginning to accept that he might be here for the long haul.
Or not, maybe. Maybe not with more than one of them on the case. ]
no subject
Have you been just using it to catalog information? I couldn't hack anything from my wrist computer.
{Which may or may not have anything to do with multiple instances of interdimensional travel, but Tim had done his best to shore up durability and cross platform compatibility to combat this sort of thing.
His fingers fly over the keyboard and he instantly begins running systems diagnostics out of habit. His fingers keep moving even when he turns to look at Dick again.}
Time frame? Are we on a crunch?
{Is something going on?}
My suit needs repair, but my equipment is good if there's something you need help with--
{He's instantly reaching towards the bag he'd dropped by his feet and trying to figure out how much of a liability he'll be with his injuries.}
no subject
Seriously? That's not... Tim- [ Does he really have to pull a big bro rank on this one, because apparently he does. He reaches down to grab for the bag, as if holding it closed will be enough to keep Tim from actually attempting to suit up right here and now. ]
We can hit the jump lines when you're not half dead on arrival, alright? Justice can wait a few hours.
[ More than a few, actually, if he has his way.
Speaking of which though, he's a little put out that they'd let Tim leave the portal building in this shape in the first place. He makes a mental note to complain. ]
no subject
I'm okay, Dick, really. You know I've had much worse, these are pretty old, and the hospital fixed me up well. Is there something urgent going on? Are you in trouble?
{He could let Dick slip out of the Damian conversation for a while because that wasn't exactly one Tim wanted to have himself, but not this. He needed to know if they were already in trouble.}
no subject
He forces himself to ease up a little instead, running a hand through his hair. ]
...No.
I mean there's obviously a lot going on here on the spontaneous cross-dimensional travel front, but other than that we're okay. Honest, Tim.
[ And it's probably time to stop beating around the bush, if he wants to stand a chance at convincing him to actually take a nap anytime soon. He lets out a little sigh, flopping down onto the nearby sofa. He's tired. ]
You haven't missed much. They pulled me in March.
no subject
He looks back up at Dick, scanning his face as he sinks down on the couch. They all have a tendency to take things on themselves and handle too much, but Dick, at this age at least, has less of a policy of withholding information than Batman, so that's something Tim can try to count on a little bit.}
Alright. Not too long then.
{He glances back at the computer screen, taps a few more buttons to make sure things will run automatically without him needed to wiggle a mouse or anything. Then he leaves the computer and perches on the arm of the couch, half facing Dick.}
In that case...what kind of time frame are you worried about? Is there some kind of expiration date they don't hand out?
no subject
No evidence so far that they aren't being upfront. [ But he doesn't take them at their word. He won't, until he finds it written out in stone. The smile he gives Tim is a little wry. ]
But you know me and dead ends.
no subject
{He echoes Dick flatly.
Well. That hadn't even really occurred to Tim yet. In the prison it had been all he could think of. He knew it was possible because someone else had escaped, but here...It seemed too good to be true, but more in a way he could handle and survive than going back there.
It wasn't that he didn't want to go back to Gotham. He did, of course he wanted to go home. He just didn't have any guarantees that if he did get out of here he would make it there rather than his prison cell.}
I haven't found anything since I arrived, either, but that wasn't long ago at all.
{He shakes his head slightly with a smirk, and stretches out his injured leg some. There was no such thing as a dead end. You just had to take a different direction.}
no subject
S'okay. I'm thinking time is probably the resource we need to be worrying about least right now.
[ Hard as it is to accept, as much as he still feels the need to get back to the academy, back to Bludhaven, back to the family as soon as possible, it's beginning to sink in that this might be it, for a while. He studies the floor for a moment. ]
So... [ The elephant in the room beckons.
And he knows he owes Tim his confidence. A willingness to understand. His trust. All things he hadn't given Jason. His gaze doesn't waver. ]
...You want to catch me up?
no subject
{Tim takes a moment to be weirdly grateful Dick's been here longer than him and is willing to be in new places with new people without fewer ruffled feathers than the rest of them. Bruce would be relentless about getting home, and Tim would have to face up to the place he actually came from that much sooner.
Dick's question brings out a weird strangled sound that might be a laugh. Where the hell is he supposed to start?}
I--Some of it, yeah, if you want, but there are some things you might not believe or want to hear about. They're just going to...complicate things. {And probably upset everyone in the room too much to continue the conversation.}
First things first, I guess. You met Damian. Is...is Jason here, too? {There was a good chance if three of them were there so would the fourth be, but there was no telling when Jason would come from or what kind of mood he'd be in. Not to mention this was going to be a hell of a talk if Dick didn't know Jason was alive.}
no subject
But he deserves a straight answer. Dick takes a breath. ]
He... surprised me, yeah. Not long after I arrived.
[ And Dick looks away. Scrubs his hands through his hair. A moment of anger and weakness, and he'd driven him away. He won't do the same to Tim. ]
Came as a bit of a shock to us both.
no subject
{Tim's voice is almost, but not quite the same one they use on civilians when trying to keep them from panicking.}
Exactly how did he surprise you?
{Was it just him being alive? Was it with attempted murder? Successful murder of someone else? Jason's great now. Tim trusts him. He's part of the family again, but Dick's proven what Tim's experienced might not mean anything at all right now.}
Yeah, Jason's given us some shocks before.
no subject
He knows he owes Tim more than that. ]
When I saw him... alive... I-
He knew the situation wasn't right. He wanted to set me straight on who he is now before I could start... assuming the wrong things, I guess? [ And probably, in the light of 20/20 hindsight, it had been a test. A test of Dick's loyalty. Of just how far he'd take family over an ugly, twisted truth. It has been up to him to step up.
It had been up to him, and he'd failed, and somehow it's worse now for Tim to see that in him. He keeps his gaze trained on the ground. ]
...Anyway, I didn't handle it well.
I'm not sure how open he is to talking now. I've been reaching out, but... [ As much as he can't really blame him given where they'd left things, the sting of those unanswered calls is still fresh. ]
no subject
He sighs heavily and tugs at his hair.}
That sounds familiar. No one handle it well before.
{He closes his eyes briefly when Dick says he's still reaching out to him because of course he is. Tim feels like he's done this before.}
You're going to want to stop and let him cool off.....for a long while maybe. {Judging by past experiences Dick will probably not listen, or will only listen until he thinks Jason could really help with this and then all regards for personal space and privacy will go out the window and Jason will yell and possibly wave a gun around and Dick will bounce around and look hurt and righteous....Tim could write this story a hundred different ways and none of them would be entirely wrong probably.}
no subject
[ A little levity he doesn't really feel, while he carefully parses through all the things Tim isn't saying. That it isn't a shock to him that Jason's alive. That he's been prone to disturbing behavior before. That it isn't surprising, apparently, that it's Dick Grayson Jason refuses to speak to now. It makes the sting a little sharper.
But Tim is the bigger concern now. In an odd way his cageyness is almost as worrying as Jason's apparent willingness to lay the whole ugly truth on the table at once. ]
So, I miss anything else? Any more spontaneous resurrections or psychotic breakdowns I need to know about?
no subject
{Dick tries to be funny, tries to break up the tension with their typical gallows humor and Tim tries to laugh, really he does, but it hits far too close to home and he kind of chokes before the laugh actually surfaces.}
Bruce went missing. {Everyone thought he was dead except me.} You took the cowl. {And hated it.} Damian was your Robin. {You told me to grow up and get therapy.} Bruce was found. {After I took on the League and lost my spleen.}
Damian died. {Tim grimaces, because that was horrible for everyone.} And came back. {He was missing a lot of things, but those seemed...the most relevant to what Dick might run into when dealing with himself or Damian.}
no subject
But today he doesn't have to. He takes a breath. ]
Well, I'm glad that worked out.
[ The death of a child. The boy who'd run to him and embraced him. There's a thousand questions to go along with that, all of which he probably owes Damian himself. The rest is-
It's not unexpected, as unsettling as it is. He'd been Batman once before with Tim at his side, not long ago at all. It's a discomfort he's familiar with. A destiny he can't escape. It had been, in part, the thing pushing him to Bludhaven. To a new life. A new start.
All of which he has to put aside now, for however long it takes to get them back where they belong. His family needs him more. ]
But I'm sure you weren't facing it all down single-handed.
[ No really he needs to know that. His eyes search for Tim's. ]
You and me, right Tim?
no subject
I spent some time in San Francisco, but...{He sighs.} There was a lot going on, Dick. {His dad, Conner, Bart, Bruce...Trying and failing to clone Conner because he had taken leave of his right mind...He had made just as many mistakes as everyone else. If not more.} You had Damian to take care of, I had the Teen Titans. {A lie. Bart was gone Conner was just barely back and Cassie thought he needed as much therapy as Dick had.} Damian and I don't get along all that well, so we didn't see each other much. We kept busy.
{It is the gentlest, more truthful way he could tell this tale, and he's still going to break Dick's heart, so he tries to get past it.}
But that was a while ago! You're back in your own suit. Bruce and Damian are Batman and Robin. He's got me working with a new team. Kate's training us to work together.
{He knows this isn't going to be enough, so he grasps at straws and thinks quickly. This is Dick before Damian, and what would he want, what would make him feel better? Hugs, probably. And time. Brotherly bonding time. Which....if it was the Dick Tim knew at home...Tim might resist a little because they still had so much left unsaid, but this Dick hadn't chosen Damian yet. He still wanted Tim as his little brother.}
And besides, we'll have time to spend together here, right?
no subject
It means they'd lost something more precious than time, somewhere along the way. That unthinking trust isn't, maybe can't be, the way they operate now. The way he and Tim work.
Or maybe he's just tired. Worn out from whatever hell he'd walked through on the way here. He's made the mistake of assuming too much before. ]
You bet. [ The smile he gives Tim is carefully reassuring. His ability to fake it is fraying. ]
I should, uh- round out our supply stash. [ Which hey, actually is an errand that reasonably needs doing as soon as possible. Most of what's in the small kitchen is cereal, candy, and aging takeout. There's no Alfred here to think of the details.
Another role he's already failing to fill.
Dick gets up a little stiffly, but he's careful to move as if he isn't in a hurry. As if nothing here is out of the ordinary. Tim isn't well, he knows that much. It isn't on him to fix whatever is broken here. ]
Are you actually gonna get some rest if I leave you here?
no subject
I'll try. I promise.
{He would promise to try, but he couldn't promise to succeed. The chances were greater here rather than in the communal floor he'd been assigned to, but there was no guarantee. He was exhausted, there was no doubt, but he was afraid of seeing the prison walls when he closed his eyes.
Dick needed to go, though, even if Tim wanted him to stay, so Tim would tell him what he needed to hear. It wasn't hard to see his urge to move and the way he couldn't keep his face happy enough for the everything's okay vibe he wanted to exude.}